Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Last week I visited friends on Orcas Island (near Seattle). I'm too old to drive 900 miles, so I came home on other forms of transportation.

I left Orcas Island on a ferry, then walked to a bus, then later transferred to a second bus, which took me to Sea-Tac, a gigantic, terrifying airport. Once inside Sea-Tac I walked around through crowds for an hour, unable to find my airline's desks. 

Once I found my airline, I realized that I did not know where to ask for a boarding pass. The area had thousands of people standing in 30 different lines. I wandered until I came upon a lone white woman manning an empty desk--she took  care of people with special needs. 

I told this white woman my special need was that I was 90 years old and no longer knew how to approach an airplane. She led me to a nook, where a stern black woman, an immigrant, handed me a boarding pass and ordered me to take a seat and wait quietly for a wheelchair. 

It looked like the port had maybe three wheelchairs and around 150 people waiting for a ride.

Eventually a small black woman, an immigrant, pushed a chair over to my area and offered to take one of us on a ride, me or a young blind guy. He and I conferred. My plane departed first, so he let me have the chair.

We headed for the departure gate. The woman pushed and pushed fast, beeping milling crowds away. These were voice beeps. 

We passed many stores, neon signs, gates, more of this and that and more. Then my pusher told me about six times (I could not understand her)  that there had been an announcement. My departure gate had been changed.

I had no idea what floor we were on or where we were. I had not heard the announcement. 

My pusher next shoved us onto a train.  I do not know why there was a train inside an airport. We rumbled along for a while, then got off and made it to my new gate. I gave the pusher all my paper money. 

I cursed Donald Trump and MAGA to Hell. 

Once on the plane I could not find my tray. A young woman next to me explained three times how the tray had been hidden in the armrest! Jesus Christ!  

And then I could not get my seatbelt hooked up. The young woman explained three times, and I got it so it looked like the others. But it never clamped. 

My wife met me at our local port, and we ate dinner at Mary's Pizza.

Car, ferry, two buses, wheelchair, train, airplane, car.